49ers’ New Levi’s Stadium Gets First Seats Installed

The first seats are installed at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, the new home of the San Francisco 49ers. (CBS)

SANTA CLARA (KPIX 5) — The San Francisco 49ers’ new Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara is getting a step closer to completion ahead of the 2014 NFL season.

Construction hit a major milestone this week as the first seats were installed in the lower bowl of the venue.

Levi’s Stadium will seat 68,500 fans during 49ers home games and roughly two-thirds of the stadium’s capacity will be housed in the lower bowl.

Featuring over 45,000 seats, the lower bowl will be one of the largest in the NFL and 49ers chief operating officer Paraag Marathe said it is designed to bring the majority of fans closer to the field.

Over 5,000 workers have helped construct Levi’s Stadium to this point, with over 75 percent of those workers hailing from the Bay Area. The stadium seating is manufactured locally in Hayward and installation time for the seats will total over 17,000 man-hours.

After the installation of the first seats, longtime 49ers’ season ticket holders Miranda Margheim and her son Steven were invited by the team to test out their seats in the new stadium.